94 
SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 
Male: length 6, wing 3.65-3.90, bill .G8-.75, tarsus .80-.90. Female: length 
6.40, wing 3.85-4.00, bill .80-.92, tarsus .85-.05. 
Distribution. — Breeding from Labrador to Alaska, migrating through 
the eastern and middle United States as far west as the Rocky Mountains 
and Utah; south to the West Indies and northern South America. 
Nest. — A slight depression in the ground, lined with grass and leaves. 
Eggs: usually 4, light drab, spotted with brown. 
The semipalmated sandpiper is generally less common than the 
least, which it resembles in habits, general appearance, and small 
size, but from which it can always be distinguished by the webbed 
base of its toes. 
Fig. 112 a. 
247. Ereunetes occidentalis Lawr. Western Sandpiper. 
Adults in summer. — Ear coverts and upper parts bright chestnut, mottled 
with black and buffy gray; breast thickly spotted. 
Adults in winter: upper parts dull gray, obscurely 
streaked with dusky; under parts white, with a few 
scattered triangular spots of dusky on breast and sides. 
Young: back spotted with black and scalloped with 
dark chestnut and white; chest tinged with pinkish 
buff; rest of under parts white. Male: wing 3.60- 
3.75, bill .85-.95, tarsus .85-.90. Female: wing 3.70- 
3.90, bill 1.00-1.15, tarsus .90-.95. 
Distribution. — Breeding in Alaska and British America, migrating 
through western North America to Central and South America. Occa¬ 
sional on the Atlantic coast in migrations. 
Nest. — A slight depression in bare or grassy ground. Eggs: usually 4, 
deep cinnamon buff, spotted with rusty brown or chestnut. 
The western sandpiper is common along the Pacific coast during 
migration, but scarce and irregular in the interior. 
GENUS CALIDRIS. 
248. Calidris arenaria (Linn.). Sanderling. 
Toes only 3, short and flattened; bill slender, about as long as tarsus ; 
feet and legs black. Breeding plumage : upper parts, throat, and 
chest specked and spotted 
with rusty, black, and whit¬ 
ish ; rest of under parts and 
stripe on middle of wing 
Fig. 113. white. Adults in summer: lg ' 114 * 
upper parts and throat specked, spotted, and streaked with black, rusty 
and whitish; rest of under parts and stripe on wing white. Adults in 
winter: upper parts hoary gray, except blackish quills and bend of wing; 
under parts snowy white. Young : upper parts coarsely spotted with dusky 
and gray above ; under parts white, sparsely marked with dusky and buffy 
on chest,. Length : 7.00-8.75, wing 4.70-5.00, bill .95-1.00, tarsus .90-1.05. 
Remarks. — In having but three toes the sanderling resembles the plov¬ 
ers, but may be distinguished from them by its slender bill and trans¬ 
versely scaled tarsus. 
Distribution. — Nearly cosmopolitan, but breeding only in arctic and 
subarctic regions ; in America wintering from Texas and California south 
to Chili and Patagonia. 
